


concessions

by justsleepwalkin



Series: Coldwaveweek2016 [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Coldwaveweek2016, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 21:25:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6256486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsleepwalkin/pseuds/justsleepwalkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post 1x07.<br/>Mick was already hesitating at the <i>crack into his mind</i> comment, but finally eases his gun down to his side. “Fine. Let's get junior fire-boy and get my partner back.”</p><p>Coldwaveweek2016 | Day 1: In Captivity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	concessions

**Author's Note:**

> This made sense when I started it a week ago. Too bad I didn't finish it at that time.
> 
> I'm sure it's still Monday somewhere (no I'm not).

“Where is he?” Mick's voice is cold, and that's the second sign that causes Rip Hunter panic.

The first: “You're supposed to be dead.”

Mick doesn't grin, doesn't answer. He steps forward into Hunter's space, crowding him against the outside of the _Waverider_. “You seem to be doing a better job at keeping the team apart than together, Hunter,” Mick rumbles. He pushes the end of his gun into Hunter's chest. Can feel the Time Master tremble. At his side in his other hand, he flicks open-and-closed a lighter. 

“Please, Mr. Rory, a moment...”

“I don't owe you a thing,” Mick reminds him. “Right now killing you seems better for everyone as a whole. Funny, don't you think?” He toys a finger along the gun's trigger, a languid grin crossing his face when Hunter jumps. 

“There was a... a problem,” Hunter whispers. 

“I'm _aware_. I was a stowaway to that _problem_. That doesn't answer my question. _Where is he_?” 

“Stowa—” He cuts himself off, realizing the danger in it, and instead answers Mick's question, rushing through it, “Chronos has him, Mr. Stein, and Ms. Saunders. Mr. Palmer and Ms. Lance are in critical condition. At this point Jax probably thinks I've been taken, too. He's _waiting_ for me and I need to—” he pushes forward, into Mick gun, furious. “The longer you keep me here, the more at risk Mr. Snart is in. Chronos will crack into his mind until it's bleeding out of him. Now I don't know how you're alive or how you got here, but _I am out of time_.”

Mick was already hesitating at the _crack into his mind_ comment, but finally eases his gun down to his side. “Fine. Let's get junior fire-boy and get my partner back.”

“I thought you weren't partners anymore,” Hunter says under his breath, and jerks his gaze away at Mick's fiery glare. He doesn't apologize. “If you were a stowaway on Chronos' ship, then you know where it is?”

“Yeah,” Mick answers, nodding his head towards the line of woods behind them. “Coupla miles. Smoking cinders of trees. Bad landing.”

“Good. That's...” Hunter stops, shaking his head. “Alright. Lets do this.”

* * *

“What is this?” Jax whispers, standing over the pod containing his other half. Stein... appeared conscious, but nothing more. His eyes glazed stare off, unblinking, at nothing. Had they not been connected, Jax would think he was dead.

“Torture,” Hunter whispers. He stands over Kendra; Mick, over Len. “We have to extract them _very_ carefully. One wrong move will fry their minds, do you understand?”

Jax looks uncomfortable. Mick just looks pissed.

Hunter rubs at his brow. “You have to understand what this is,” he murmurs. “These pods... they warp time itself around the person inside, stretching seconds into years, and then back again. Again and again.”

“So we pull 'em out at the wrong moment, it'll nuke them,” Jax growls. “They won't recover.”

“...Yes.”

“This is your fault,” Mick snaps.

Hunter sighs. “Yes. I'm aware of that. Alright, now listen closely...”

* * *

Kendra comes back to herself sooner than the other two, though she still slumps against Hunter, unable to walk on her own. “Benefit of reincarnating, I would imagine; she has an easier time of recovering,” he tells the others, after Mick threatens to kill him when his partner doesn't wake up. “ _Please_ we have to hurry, Chronos won't stay trapped for long.”

“Stein's in there, I know he is. I can feel him rattling around. If we can get him back to the _Waverider_ , I think he'll be fine.”

Mick looms over Len, cradling his head, trying to find any sign of responsiveness. Len's eyes move, like they're following something that only he can see, lost in that illusion. Mick did everything correctly that Hunter told him to do; he's sure of it. This is on Len's mind and body, needing to come together and pull through.

“Lenny, come on, you're stronger than this,” Mick tells him. Hunter's talking in a panic behind him, but Mick ignores him and just focuses solely on Len. “Stronger than me. Bet you're just over-thinking this. Bogging your brain down.”

“Mick...” Jax's voice filters in, worried.

“He's fine!” Mick says, voice raised.

“I know he'll be,” Jax replies, “he's got you to look after him. But we gotta go. _Now_.”

Mick grits his teeth. “Just one more...” He finds one of Len's hands and pushes his heat gun into it. It's not the same as the cold gun, sure, but it might just— _ah_. Len's eyes stop their constant moving and his fingers wrap around the gun. Mick grins. “Knew you were in there somewhere, buddy.”

“Good. Great. Can we _please_ go now?” Hunter begs.

“I could still shoot you,” Mick tells him, even though he knows Hunter is well aware.

They make their escape.

* * *

“I really thought you were dead,” Jax is saying to Mick.

The medbay is far too crowded, but Gideon doesn't seem to mind. Two thirds of the team were injured. Hunter's off flying them to somewhere “safe” (and probably just avoiding Mick). Which leaves Mick and Jax to stand shoulder-to-shoulder by the door, watching vigilante. 

“Don't hurt your head thinking about it, kid,” Mick says. 

“So he didn't...”

“It's complicated.”

Jax frowns. “That explains nothing.”

“'cause I don't want to—” he's interrupted by Len screaming awake, and space be damned, Mick navigates his way around bodies to get to his partner's side. “ _Lenny_. You're on the ship. It's fine!” Len's screaming doesn't stop. He sounds like he's in pain. “Gideon!”

“Administering sedative.”

Len starts to ease, going limp. Mick thinks he's passed out again, but a few minutes later he rasps, “Mick.”

“Welcome back.”

“What happened?”

“Chronos went to town on the team.”

“How're you here?”

“Stole a ride from the tincan.”

“You shouldn't have done that... I told you—”

“Yeah, yeah, make myself scarce, blend in. Metalhead showed up though, doing some weird things. It was either get aboard or get caught.”

Len nods, sluggish. “Alright. Fine. But you can't—Rip—”

“Stop thinking for five minutes and rest for once. Hunter's not gonna cause a fuss til the crew's healed. We'll go from there. I'll take care of this myself. Just _let_ me.”

Len remains silent. Mick doesn't think he'll answer, and that builds frustration, that brings him back to an eerie night and the cold gun directed at him and miles and miles of trust issues. 

Then: “Okay.” 

Mick stares at him, not sure if he heard him right. “You pullin' my leg?”

Len laughs, though it comes out hoarsely. “I'll concede, this one time.” A smile twists over his pained expression. 

“I'll get a second time out of you.”

“I hope you'll try.”

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe I'll come back to this at some point so I can act like I know what I was writing.


End file.
